Archive for Brand Building

The latest buzz word in retail is “Clienteling“. This is where stores are getting their sales associates to proactively communicate with previous customers to inform them of news. From a customer’s perspective, this means that you will soon be getting “cold calls” from MANY stores in the very near future !! I’m sure that some stores will do clienteling correctly, but most stores will do client telling.

Here is my definition of the two terms:

Clienteling: The act of contacting a customer for the purpose of mutual benefit. (two way)

Client Telling: The act of contacting customers to TELL them about irrelevant and trivial info. (one way)

So how should REAL retail clienteling be done correctly ?

1) An honest introduction to the concept – Sales associates need to be honest and inform the customer that their role is being expanded so that they can contact customers directly (if the customer agrees).

2)An introduction to the sales associate - The sales associate needs to communicate exactly who they are and why they are worthy of being a “point of contact”. A picture, a short career bio, and some insight into the sales associate’s expertise and personality will make a huge difference when building a relationship.

3) A written statement of benefits – Give the customer an itemized list of the benefits that they would get by participating. If they are NOT convinced of these benefits in the early stages of communications, they will always view these contacts as annoying.

4) A formal opt-in process – The customer should fill in a form with their preferred method of contact (email, text, phone), and their personal interests (sales, new product introductions, events, etc), and any other requests regarding the associate-customer relationship.

In conclusion, I recommend that EVERY sales associate needs to have their own personal flyer that contains the four elements above. This is how one starts a professional two-way relationship.

OK… bear with me here… this might get a bit technical, but I think I can explain this in a way so everyone can understand what GRAVITY and MOBILE PHONES have to do with each other !

When a store owner is looking to open a retail store in a particular geographic region, they perform an analysis on the surrounding shopping options to determine how many shoppers will potentially visit the proposed location. They use a formula called the “GRAVITY MODEL” ** which calculates the size of the retail area around a specific location based on a comparison of shopping alternatives, driving distance, and population size and demographics. This analysis identifies a “ring” around any given location where potential shoppers reach their “breaking point” (BP) and make a decision to go to store B instead of store A !

For this example, lets assume that one is evaluating a retail location in a densely populated city with evenly distributed customer demographics. In this case, the main factors that get plugged into the “Gravity Model” equation will be:

- Competitors Strength – A popular brand competitor or a larger grouping of stores exert more “pull” and gets consumers to visit from a greater distance.

- Distance to walk / drive – If everything was equal, a consumer will tend to visit the store that is closest.

Well… one thing that is NOT mentioned in the existing gravity equation but should be are MOBILE SALES, MARKETING, and SUPPORT APPS. These APPs are able to put influential store services in the palm of your hand. This is a strong factor when comparing the attractiveness of “store A” vs “store B”. Consumers will shop at a store that is further away if it offers superior OUT-OF-HOME services such as better product information, greater convenience, relevant discounts, personalized solutions, and reduced time spent on non-essential tasks.

In my example city (densely populated), it is easy to imagine that adding mobile services might make your “circle of potential customers” grow from 1/2 MILE to 1 MILE. Calculating the increased area of these circles results in a 400% increase in potential customers ! That is an extremely powerful opportunity for ANY business to increase their revenue. So… I rest my case… Mobile phones really do influence gravity (and have a great ROI ).

How does one turn good ideas into successful corporations ? A large number of entrepreneurs start this path every year and become a significant percentage of the world economy. The existence of entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Richard Branson are known, but do people really understand what they accomplished ? Does the “man on the street” really realize what it takes to go from working 20 hour days in a garage (surrounded by old pizza boxes) to being the richest man in the world ? Their riches were not due to ancestry, they were not due to conquest, they were not because they owned natural resources. This great wealth was due to the creation and execution of a GOOD IDEA !

Note the sentence above… creation and EXECUTION. Executing on an idea requires that you first create a vision of the future. What is your goal ? How big will your company be ? What markets will you be in ? What problem categories will you be solving ? What environmental factors will be affecting your business in the future? This vision should not be a straight-jacket though… this is based on information that you have right now… as you get more information, your vision can change… but at ALL TIMES, you must know what the end game is or you don’t know what steps are needed to get there.

With my 2du company, I have a pretty aggressive “vision”. The reason that I think this is attainable is primarily due to my opinions concerning the future of new media technologies. I think we are in the first phase of a “perfect storm”where a combination of events are going to dramatically change the way that businesses communicate and create value for their customers. Radical changes are happening all around us… sales, marketing, and support techniques, the ways that we pay for goods and services, the visibility and power of individual opinion, and more… all of these are being enabled by NEW MEDIA technologies. I think this is a business tsunamithat will effect ALL business (world-wide) ! This is NOT a niche, this is ALL business (world-wide). Think about it… I can’t even say what that dollar value is or people will just roll their eyes ! I really do believe that new media technologies will be purchased and integrated into EVERY business in the coming years. The NEW MEDIA opportunity is one of those situations like the early days of electricity… very few people have it and EVERYONE needs to be connected !

As long as we execute our WIN-WIN ideas… well…. I better get back to work !!

I was reading a study by “Marketing Sherpa“ which gives a lot of details about how Businesses are using new media technologies such as blogs, social networks, multimedia, and more. Since GeoHelp uses a Real-time Business/Customer microblog, it jumped out at me that they found that microblogging was judged as “most effective for the least effort” new media technology for businesses… very interesting !

By adding a GeoHelp Community to your website, you can have FULL CONTROL of your brand, the ability to capture leads, promote customer loyalty, offer superior service and capture valuable customer data to a hosted SQL database. Here is an example of a customized GeoHelp by 2du® Help Community that is added to an existing website:

LOYALTY features include:

POINTS for participating in the conversation !

CUSTOMERS get their own PORTAL

REWARDS can be given INSTANTLY to conversation participants

DELIVERY method is chosen by the consumer (Mobile, Email, Portal)

Customer inquiries can be initiated via MOBILE SMS

Individualized or group promotion targeting

REDEMPTION tracking using linear & QR Mobile barcodes

LOCATION, mobile position statistics

This combination of features is bundled in a very easy to understand consumer and admin interface that makes it FUN for everyone involved ! Social engagement + loyalty rewards is a WIN-WIN !

Remember the days when retailers knew their customer’s names and preferences when they walked in the door ? Well… neither do I !! I think I’ve seen this on an old “GUNSMOKE” rerun !

For many centuries now, retail marketers have been directing their messaging towards broad categories of customers (mass marketing). This is now changing due to the application of technology into the retail space. Recording of purchase history and identifying buyer behavior is common now-a-days, but REAL change is just starting to happen… mass marketing is changing to personal marketing.

MASS MARKETING changing to PERSONAL MARKETING

Put yourself in the shoes of a business owner… you don’t want to take advantage of anyone, you just want to make a living… a completely normal urge to provide value to customers AND feed your family (ok build your business) ! How would you do that with the least amount of pain ???? In short, the least expensive and most effective way to build a business is to influencecustomers at the EXACT time that they are making a purchase decision. So how do you do this ?

Personal marketing means offering customers RELEVANT information and RELEVANT offers. Relevancy requires knowledge. You need to know about your customers’ interests and preferences… this is worth money because it lets you stop doing “shotgun” advertising. You can tailor your offers to match the needs of individuals ! This is the concept of the GeoHelp Platform. 2du creates a WIN-WIN system so businesses get relevant information and customers save money.

The chart used here is from: NextGen of Merchandising and Marketing – Customer Insights at the Point of Decision – An ebook written by DemandTec and downloadable from http://www.demandtec.com/

We will soon be launching our GeoHelp platform which has many state-of-the-art features. Customers can use our iphone app to ask “How late are you guys open today?”, or “Do you carry Gucci sunglasses?”, or “I bought some paint from your store last year… how can I match the color when I buy more?” Businesses answer these questions using their own iphone app or via a simple SaaS support screen. This IMMEDIATE gratification makes for happy customers !

Now that a “conversation” has been started, why not send something special to that customer so they come to your store ? GeoHelp lets you instantly select from premade messages and send these to one or many customers in less than 30 seconds ! We call these messages “Super Messages” because they contain over 25 pieces of information including a YouTube video, QR code for redemption, links to all social media, and much more.

GeoHelp includes the following features which a business accesses on the GeoHelpAdmin web site:

GeoRewards- automatically send incentives to customers when they are close

Mobile Chat - offer VIP service and be “top of mind” when customers have questions

Phase 1: Identify your Customers

Promotions, interactive games and loyalty card programs all have the goal of identifying both new and existing customers. You offer rewards in exchange for customers telling you who they are. Once you know exactly who your customers are, you can start a dialogue with them… for example LISTENING to their opinions and preferences, and offering products and services which meet their needs ! These identification efforts should be running AT ALL TIMES or you are missing an opportunity to grow your business.

Phase 2: Exchange Value for Info

Now that you have a raw customer list, you can start to exchange value for more information about them. It isn’t really that important to know the basic details (name, address, phone, etc.)… it is needed for the process to work (contacting them), but basic details are NOT the goal !!!The goal is to know what people like and what motivates them to visit your business and purchase your goods and/or services !! What do they buy ? Why do they buy it from your business ? What can your business do differently so that person wants to buy more ?

Phase 3: Optimizing the WIN-WIN

Now that the business has more detailed information about individual customer preferences. The business can now create and monitor targeted VALUE OFFERS to individual customers and see if they perceive a meaningful benefit ! Since customer “perception” is an ever changing variable, the value offerings need to be changing to take “real-time information” into account (such as new product deliveries, previous offer reactions, even current weather conditions !!). So start experimenting and see what REAL-TIME value-added mechanisms cause customers to visit more, spend more time per-visit, spend more money per-visit, and tell more people about your brand !

NEW MEDIA and database technologies enable this process. The GeoHelp platform is designed to combine these technologies to make REAL-TIME experimentation easier so businesses can create a non-intrusive WIN-WIN for the community. We value your opinion !

TIME magazine featured Twitter on the cover of their magazine and used 3800 words to describe how “Twitter” will change American Business. Yes, the Twitter company offers the most popular microblogging system for “What are you doing?” usage, but will they be the ones to dominate when it comes to offering a professional ENGAGEMENT System for business applications? For example, if someone “tweets” your business asking “When do you guys close today?” and you don’t respond, then that is just as damaging to your brand as not answering phone calls !

Business engagement really needs a more flexible and complete set of features before it is ready to take on the tasks mentioned in the Times article. But… when twitter-like services are “ready for prime time”, then I believe their predictions are accurate. So, it is my opinion that Time’s article REALLY should be titled; Ten Ways that Social Tools Will Change American Business.

Making Old-World Advertising Work - business microblogging couples messages with mobile 2D barcode responses so that tracking when and where traditional advertising is seen, and when and where it is redeemed.

New Ways to Get Consumer Data - having the ability to get immediate feedback about products and services is extremely valuable to businesses. This feedback can also be associated with opt-in demographics information such as location, gender, age, purchasing history, etc.

Expanding the Power of Micropayments - Many companies are beta testing a type of “alternative currency” using microblog messages that can be used to pay for purchases less that $25. These would be encrypted messages or secure 2D barcodes which are scanned by a soda machine or a retailer to deduct money from a prepaid account. This system might be of interest to the 20 to 30 million people in USA (over the age of 15) who do not have a credit card or bank account. And… listen to this… a formal bank study estimates that there are 20 to 30 million people without credit cards or bank accounts who earn more than 500 billion dollars annually and put it under their mattresses ! Now that sounds like an opportunity to give them a simple and secure way to carry and use cash ! mmm….